An estimated 850,000 people in the UK are living with Dementia, and around 670,000 are acting as their primary carers.

These figures are set to rise dramatically over the coming years as our population ages and the Alzheimer’s Society suggest the number of people with Dementia will rise to over a million by 2021.

In an industry where the work is often challenging, and there is a need to understand vulnerable people and their conditions, there is a serious lack of consistent training.

Dealing with the growing number of dementia cases is a priority and Skills for Health is supporting the development of a workforce with the necessary knowledge and skills to care for people with the illness.

The newly launched Dementia Core Skills Education Training Framework will seek to support better integration of health and social care dementia services.

With only 44% of people with dementia in England currently receiving a diagnosis, the framework will include dementia awareness, identification, assessment and diagnosis.

At Absolute Healthcare we welcome this new framework as a formal acceptance by Government that there needs to be better education for the many people who care for people with the condition.

We particularly welcome its focus on person-centred dementia care, which seeks to understand a patient as an individual. We already do this as part of our care strategy for clients with the illness, and we regularly provide dementia awareness training to our team of care workers, so that they are continuously prepared to provide the very best quality care to those living with dementia and to ensure we are playing our part in identifying non diagnosed cases in the community.